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I see in today’s paper ( Mail 28.01.17) that Kodak are to start , “By Overwhelming Public Demand” to produce Ectachrome once again.

Apparently many professionals have asked for it to be re-instated.

In my time I loved it as the best of all slide films, bar none.

My question is, I wonder how many club members, not just our own club, would use it after re-introduction. And especially after going digital. I stick my neck out and say that no digital camera I have seen, without going into the realms of mega money cameras, gets near to Ectachrome prints.

I still have my EOS 650 film camera in the wardrobe. I can’t part with it.

Nigel Richards, who runs camera fairs, tells me that there is a lot of interest amongst younger people in film. They love their OM1s, AE1s etc (though they are not interested in photographic societies). There is certainly a resurgence of interest, even some new films being made. Of course many workers have never really left film and when you look at the beautiful results people like Niall McDiarmid is getting with his Street portraits, who can blame them.

I still have a box of film in the fridge and tworeally good film cameras, what am I waiting for? Probably too stingey is the answer.

I preferred Ektachrome to Kodachrome though it was a wee bit bluish but perhaps mainly because it worked out to be a bit less expensive.

Yes, film is growing in popularity again, and vintage camera prices have been rising in recent years. University and college photography courses teach their students to use film, and have well-equiped darkrooms.

Like John, I have some film cameras (OM1, Spotmatic II, Rolleiflex), and some Acros 120 film in the freezer (and, I think, some HP5). So, why don’t I use film more? Well, I don’t myself have a darkroom, and though I could use a friend’s darkroom, I find that developing film has become a bit of a tedious chore, and I’d rather spend the time photographing!

The alternative of paying to have the processing done at a lab is prohibitively expensive if you shoot a lot. (A roll of BW 35mm typically costs £7-£10 for developing only, incl P&P for return of negatives.) Colour is trickier to do yourself, and considerably more expensive to have done by a lab.

So I suspect that film will continue to be a bit ‘niche’ – confined to enthusiasts or, alternatively, something people try for a while, and then revert to easier and cheaper digital. Of course, as Les says, film produces lovely results, and so still has dedicated professional users who would not dream of shooting a serious project any other way; and, indeed, some commercial projects require it. And we don’t yet have 8″x10″ digital sensors, so very high resolution work has to be on large format sheet film, which is what the likes of Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz use.

By the way, although Kodak Alaris, the company that took over some brand names and assets when Kodak closed, plans to restart production of Ektochrome (which is processed using the relatively simple E-6 process), they have no intention of bringing back Kodachrome, because that would require the setting up of the complex infrastructure for K-14 processing, which was broken up when Kodachrome production ceased. So it’ll be Ektachrome only from Kodak.

Or you could use Fujichrome Velvia or Provia – also E-6, so processing still widely available.